Page last updated: 25-NOV-2008

New Ways Statement on Performance Indicators

 

Why do we publish information on both patients still waiting and patients seen?

Waiting times statistics are of public and 'management' interest for measuring among other things how well the health system is performing and prompting management action where pressures on the standard of service required by the public are apparent. There are two statistics of interest in this regard for assessing NHS hospitals' performance:

  • Waiting times of patients who are still waiting for health care at a point in time (waiting list census);
  • Waiting times actually experienced by patients who have been treated.

These are different statistics that can be used for different purposes.

Patients waiting
These statistics measured at a census point show the length of time that patients on a waiting list have been waiting at the month end. This is the most useful measure for NHS managers who may need to take prospective action to make sure patient waits do not exceed the national maximum waiting time standard set by the Scottish Government. 

The Scottish Government use information on Patients Waiting to performance manage waiting times standards, and these statistics have played an important intelligence role in the significant reductions seen in waiting times over the last few years.

This measure however, does not report how long patients actually waited until they received care. If a census is repeated as a routine then the maximum extra time the waiting patients may experience who are removed from the waiting list between censuses, is the time gap between censuses. Currently at national reporting level that is one month.

Another gap in the picture provided by this measure is the patients who are added to a waiting list after one census point and treated (removed from the list) before the next census point. This is not generally an issue for prospective performance management action.

Patients seen
These statistics show the complete picture of waiting time experienced by patients and is therefore a good retrospective measure of how well the NHS is performing against the standard and takes account of the gaps in the census measure described above. This is what a lay person would understand by the words of the standard set for the health service. It is not so useful for prospective management action of course because it is historic, but it may indicate issues to managers. For example where waiting list management processes might need adjustment to deal with long waiters in order to prevent them slipping over the target between census points.